Patriots Beat: Special teams a longterm ticket

Sunday

Aug 26, 2007 at 12:01 AMAug 26, 2007 at 11:09 AM

With the 229th pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, the last one used by the Patriots that year, Baylor safety Willie Andrews came off the board. Four months later, being a safety had little to do with why Andrews remained after the team sliced its roster to 53 just before season's outset.

Albert Breer

With the 229th pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, the last one used by the Patriots that year, Baylor safety Willie Andrews came off the board.

Four months later, being a safety had little to do with why Andrews remained after the team sliced its roster to 53 just before season's outset. Two guys, drafted 24 and 38 picks, respectively, ahead of Andrews by the Patriots didn't make it, and the reason for that mirrors why he did.

Andrews can play special teams. The other two that got whacked, Jeremy Mincey and Dan Stevenson? Not so much.

It's a dynamic that exists with every NFL team, and one that keeps guys with potential off rosters and ones that are physically limited on them.

"You can look at our roster in the last few years, or really since I've been here, and find plenty of players on the 53-man roster who have a significant amount of playing time in the kicking game and very little offensively or defensively," said coach Bill Belichick. "There's no question that there's a place for those players on our roster and they're important players to us. You put your roster together, you got a find a way to get all those bases covered, and there's no question special teams are a big factor in the makeup of your team and some roster decisions."

The NFL allows teams to dress 45 players (46 if a "third quarterback" is designated) and the truth is, that's just not enough. If you break down every position on the team - including all kick units and specialized roles on offense and defense - the number is well into triple digits. Then, figure that two quarterbacks are among those 45, and that brings you down to 43. The kicker and punter knock it down two more spots to 41.

The bottom line is that it's an enormous numbers crunch, and there's little room to hold on to developmental prospects.

So if a guy hopes to develop into more than just "promising" on offense or defense, he'll have to carve out a role on special teams, in most cases, to even get that chance.

Take the case of Kelley Washington. At one point during his college career, he was viewed as a prospect worthy of a top 10 pick in the draft. He played no special teams at Tennessee and, given the level of interest during an All-SEC freshman year, it looked like he wouldn't have to as a pro, either.

Instead, he got nicked up his sophomore year and, following that, slipped into the third round of the draft. And he went to the Bengals, who weren't exactly hurting for starting wideouts.

The team hadn't made a hefty investment in him, and if he wasn't going break through in his first camp, he had to be covering kicks. So he learned. Not because he wanted to. Because he had to.

"It can even be the difference in whether you're active or inactive, or whether you're making the team or not," said Washington, who's now playing on kickoff, punt and punt return teams for the Patriots. "I learned that early on. It's helped me, as far as being a complete player. I can play special teams and that'll just give me a better chance to make the team."

For lower round picks, like Andrews, it can be their only shot to make the cut.

Take Eric Alexander. His special-teams ability marked his career at LSU. So the Patriots took a shot at him as an undrafted free agent. He was kept around on the practice squad his first two seasons, with brief cameos on the active roster.

It turns out, he was good enough. He made the team in 2006 and led the team in special teams tackles in four games.

But the best part of his story is yet to come. Only a starting linebacker for one year in college, and a reserve safety at LSU before that, excelling on special teams bought him the time to develop defensively. Develop he did - earning enough of the coaches' trust to draw a start in the AFC Championship on the inside.

"Special teams is a big part of this program," said Alexander. "If you can play it, you're gonna be valuable to this team. They felt like I was able to be an efficient special teams player, so they kept me around."

Which is to say, they wouldn't have otherwise.

By Wednesday, the Patriots will start the bloodletting in cutting their roster to 75. On Saturday, it must be down to 53.

For guys like Tom Brady, Richard Seymour, Vince Wilfork and Adalius Thomas those dates mean nothing. But for players like Oscar Lua and Corey Mays, Mike Richardson and Tory James, these are nervous moments.

In the final analysis, a healthy part of the evaluation will be based on how good the player can be on offense or defense. But just as important, roster limits being what are, is how the player can contribute right now. And in most of these cases, the only way is by covering and blocking as part of the special teams.

"Not everybody can start," said Washington. "The quicker you learn that and the quicker you can understand that whatever you can do to the help the team, the better you're gonna be and the longer you're gonna last."

Asante arriving?

If what we've heard is true, Asante Samuel should be in the fold with plenty of time to spare before the regular season.

The easy decision's probably already made: Samuel will be the left corner, when he's ready to step in, and Ellis Hobbs will be opposite him. Now that we got that out of the way, what's tougher is how this band will be orchestrated in the nickel.

On Friday night, a hint came. The Patriots were using Hobbs out of the slot more, where a steady tackler and aware cover man is needed.

The guess here is that on these passing downs, Hobbs stays there with Samuel and Randall Gay playing to the outside. If, that is, Samuel is indeed on the way.

Thomas the Thumper?

Much has been made of how Adalius Thomas was brought in here to be a playmaker, and using him in a thumper role at the Mike (SILB) is wasting that.

That idea loses validity on third down. The Patriots have used Thomas in myriad roles in the nickel, playing him down off the edge, as a 3-technique tackle and dropping him into coverage and rushing him from a linebacker spot. That's why, at this point, he's been both the valuable Swiss Army knife that he was known as in Baltimore, and the big, physical Mike the team has needed since Ted Johnson hung 'em up.

"He absolutely gives us flexibility on third down, as we have with some other people out there as well," said Belichick. "In being able to move those guys around a little bit or change up, having different guys do different things and create different looks for an offense, out of different fronts, it's an advantage for us. It's something we want to try to make effective and (Thomas) is absolutely a part of that."

New School

DE Kareem Brown is going through a similar transition to the one Vince Wilfork underwent three years ago. Both came from Miami's attacking gap defense, in which defensive linemen are taught to attack. In Foxboro, these guys have to learn to hold their ground, read and react, and that means fighting off old tendencies and changing habits.

"It has to be rapid fire," said Brown. "That's why you study the game so much, so those instincts become natural and second nature. That's why certain people, like (Richard) Seymour and Ty (Warren) and Vince (Wilfork), they do so well. They've been here four or five years, Seymour's been here seven, so they know the defense like the back of their hand."

(Albert Breer is a Daily News staff writer. He can be reached at abreer@cnc.com or 508-626-3872.)